Ruintale
by IamDragonFury
Summary: (Undertale AU) After taking a monster soul, Chara returned to the surface and enslaved humanity, years later, homeless, orphan teenager Frisk escape's the kingdom and falls into the underground, where he befriends runaway monster prince, Asriel Dreemurr, and many other monsters. Wanting to spare them of Chara's wrath, Frisk sets out to deter Queen Toriel from breaking the barrier.
1. Chapter 1

Ruintale

Chapter 1.

 **Yes, yes, another AU, judge all you want, I don't care, I can't help myself and I have no regrets.**

 **The Premise Of This AU: The monsters were still sealed underground by the humans, the first human to fall down was still Chara, who was adopted by the Dreemurrs. But, instead of killing himself and making Asriel absorb his soul, Chara, after finding out about soul power, convinced Asgore to absorb his soul while he was still alive, as it is explained in one of Alphys's notes that it takes incredible power to absorb the soul of a living monster (I can only assume it would be the same the other around). Asgore went to the surface to get the human souls, but, was killed before he could get all that was needed, the still living Chara took off back to the surface with Asgore's soul, where he put his new power to use. A vengeful Toriel took the soul that Asgore brought back and went to the surface, and attacked the humans that killed Asgore, but, returned without any souls. Seeing what she did, a traumatized Asriel fled the castle and ran away to the ruins. Then, Frisk falls down into the underground, having run away from his village to escape Chara's torment, he meets and befriends Asriel, who grudgingly guides Frisk through the underground, along with some other monster friends, worried about his new friend's safety and reluctant to face his mother again. **

**Note: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara are all teenagers in this AU, Frisk and Asriel are 16 years old, Chara is 17 years old, and, of course, Frisk and Chara are male. Kinda like in Tyrantale, everyone in the underground is rather jaded, though, since they are still pretty loyal to Toriel, they retain some of their original personalities. Flowey does not exist in this AU, he was going to, but, in order for things to make sense, I had to leave him out. Gaster is still alive and is still the royal scientist, while Alphys is his loyal assistant/adoptive daughter figure (therefore Sans and Papyrus's adoptive sister). Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne, along with many others, serve mostly as supportive guardian/family figures to Asriel and eventually Frisk, while also faithfully doing Toriel's bidding whenever asked, though they respect the wishes of Asriel as well. Chara is a violent, power-hungry oppressor who rules the surface with an iron fist, kinda like how he was in Tyrantale, though, as a teenager and with ever so slightly altered goals.**

* * *

 _Long ago two races ruled over the land: Humans and Monsters, until tensions arose and war broke out; following a long, bloody, dusty battle, the monsters surrendered and the victorious humans sealed them underground, behind a powerful barrier._

 _Years later, a human child fell into the underground, where he was found by Asriel, the son of the Monster King, Asgore and his wife, Queen Toriel, who eventually adopted the human boy. They treated him as their own child, the prince treating him as a sibling._

 _One day, the king's royal scientist, Dr. Gaster made a revelation while looking into the barrier that trapped them under ground. Apparently, it was created with "soul power" and that was the only thing that could destroy it. It seemed that breaking it would require a total of seven human souls, however, the scientist also found that with ONE human soul, a monster would have enough power to cross through the barrier. With this news arose a moral dilemma, as the only human soul they had on hand was...the adopted human prince, however, Gaster was quick to offer a solution, which was, that, if enough power was mustered, a soul could be absorbed without having to kill the soul's host._

 _Over hearing the discussion of soul power, the human child saw an opportunity and offered to let Asgore absorb his soul, using his own "determination" with Asgore's magic, as well as some scientific assistance from Gaster, the king was able to absorb the child without harming him. With the borrowed soul, the king crossed through the barrier and made his way to the human village, which at that moment was quiet; moving slowly, Asgore came across a young human woman, who was unaware of his present. Asgore approached her from behind, intending only to safely subdue her and absorb her soul without hurting her, however, at that very moment, the human child combined with his soul took control and he was unable to do anything. It was then that the young woman noticed Asgore, terrified, she screamed, alerting the rest of the village, however, the human child forced Asgore to attack her, killing her instantly, much to Asgore's horror._

 _The human boy then gave control back to Asgore, who noticed the woman's soul rising out of her body; shaken and in shock, Asgore reluctantly grabbed the new human soul, unfortunately, by now, the rest of the village had come running, having heard the young woman call before being killed. Fearful and outraged, the villagers attacked Asgore with everything they had, when Asgore felt the human child trying to take control again, it took every ounce of his will to resist and hold him back. Clutching the new human soul he had acquired, the king ran from the village and returned to the underground; horribly wounded, Asgore staggered into the castle, where he presented the single new human soul, before collapsing in the throne room, where he turned to dust._ _While Queen Toriel and Prince Asriel were distracted by their grief, the human child, having survived the incident and absorbed Asgore's soul, fled the castle and crossed back through the barrier, never to be seen again._

 _After the death of their king and the betrayal of the adopted human prince, the monsters fell into despair, in her grief the heartbroken queen declared war on humanity and made a fateful move, taking the one human soul Asgore had managed to get, she went to the surface herself, to the very village her husband had acquired the soul, and laid waste to it. However, Toriel returned to the underground empty-handed, for in her blind hysteria, she neglected to collect any human souls; when he saw what his mother had done, a horrified Asriel ran from the castle, disappearing into the underground without a trace._

 _Despite her losses, the queen did not waver from her decision: that humanity must pay for everything that they had done to them._

* * *

 **(Years later, on the surface)**

In the dead of night, a group of armed guard were running across an overgrown field, they were chasing a teenage boy who was trying to leave the kingdom. All of humanity lived under the rule of King Chara, a dangerous, oppressive boy with fearsome, unholy power. Despite being a teenager, Chara was the most feared being on the planet, because of his atrocious power to absorb people's souls, which he had mysteriously acquired as a child.

Chara had many rules, the most important one being that anyone who defies him must be brought to him, at which point he would kill them and absorb their soul to add to his power. Because of this, most people were quick to obey Chara's every whim, though, every once in a while, a brave soul would dare to defy him.

Frisk was the latest of those brave souls, a gutsy, destitute teenager with absolutely nothing to his name, thanks to Chara, who decided that he had had enough. So, that night, he made a break for it, he was going to escape Chara's dystopian hellhole or die trying, anything was better than living another day pretending to respect that monstrous overlord.

Chara had eyes all over the kingdom, so, making a covert get away was not possible, Frisk simply took a casual walk to the edge of town and bolted, it did not take long for guards to come after him, not that he cared. He already made it to the woods, just at the base of Mount Ebott, the mountain where legend said that anyone who climbed it never came back down, as far as Frisk was concerned, it was perfect.

The teenager guessed that the guards had been ordered to take him alive, they would have started shooting if they had not; surprisingly, Frisk had managed to outrun the guards as reaching the mountain top. Although, he could already hear the guards catching up, seeing their flashlight beams flailing wildly in the darkness, and he had nowhere else to run.

Frisk looked around, behind him was the group of approaching guards, ahead of him was the mountain's sloping edge, down below was nothing but more mountain and rock, the only thing that stood out was a dark chasm, which was only just visible because of the moonlight. It was a straight drop from the top of the mountain to the crevice below, which gave Frisk an idea, after taking one last look at the guards creeping up on him, the bold teenager took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and lunged forward, letting himself fall over the mountain ledge.

The boy opened his eyes as he fell, seeing himself be swallowed up by the darkness, death was certain, he was sure, there was no way that human could possibly survive such a fall. He did not care what happened to him, whether he survived the fall or not, he had only one thing on his mind: "Freedom".

The fall seemed to last an eternity, until finally, it was over; Frisk crash landed onto a pile of...something, it was not the softest landing, but, it was enough to cushion his fall. Between the force of the landing and the shock of actually surviving the fall, the overwhelmed teenager blacked out.

After several minutes of darkness, Frisk was slowly coming to and, as he did, he could hear noises, footsteps, animal-like sounds, and what sounded like people whispering. He then heard voices.

"You said it's over here?" a young, male voice asked.

" _Huh_ ," Frisk thought, " _what's happening_?"

"Yeah," another, garbled, voice seemed to answered the first one, "it landed moments ago and it's still alive!"

Frisk was both scared and confused, where was he? He just fell off of a mountain, how could there be people down here?

" _That doesn't sound like the guards that were chasing me,"_ Frisk thought warily, " _did they send others? No, it couldn't be, people who come up here are said to disappear, if anything, they should think that I'm dead. Or is Chara just that desperate to collect any soul he can?_ "

He closed his eyes tightly, unsure of what was going to happen next.

"See, look," Frisk heard the garbled voice again, he also felt someone poke the side of his face, "it _is_ alive."

Whoever it was poked him a couple more times, before he heard the other voice.

"Stop that," the male scolded the first, "he could be seriously hurt."

"Yeah, but, at least he's alive," the first voice replied, "thanks to the landing pile."

There was a moment of silence, before Frisk felt a hand touch his face, a surprisingly fuzzy hand, which made him guess that the person looking at him was wearing gloves.

"Hey," the young-sounding male spoke softly, lightly patting Frisk's face, "you wanna wake up?"

It was then Frisk felt an arm sliding under his shoulders, which sent him into panic mode.

"No!" he shouted, his eyes snapping open, "I won't go back!"

Frisk flung himself over, rolling off whatever his was lying on and ending up on solid ground, it was then he finally felt the pain inflicted by the fall. It did not feel like anything was actually broken, but, he was awfully sore, to sore to move much. He rubbed his eyes as he moaned quietly in pain.

The teenager then felt a pair of arms envelop his upper body and once again he started struggling.

"No," he whimpered, "no, please, I'm not going back, just kill me, please, kill me, I don't wanna-"

"Ssshhhhhhh..." the male who had found him soothed, "it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, just hold still."

Frisk went limp as he felt a strange sensation wash over him, a warm, semi-tingly feeling, that lasted for a moment, when it was over, he found that he was no longer in pain.

"There," the voice asked, "better."

Finally, the boy opened his eyes to see what was going on, the first thing he saw was white, as his vision focused, he wondered if what he was looking at was real. The person who was holding him seemed to have long, white...hair? No, what he was looking at was actually ears, long, white, fluffy ears, the person himself was in in fact covered in white fur. This person was clearly not human.

"Oh shit..." Frisk voiced, "I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Uh, nah," the fuzzy figure replied, "you're not dead."

Frisk look up curiously, he could just barely see moonlight shining through the opening he had fallen through.

"Can you stand?" the horned male wondered.

The human teenager made to stand up, with the fuzzy person's assistance, once on his feet he found that he no longer felt any pain.

"Wow, nothing hurts anymore," Frisk mused, "how'd that happen?"

"Healing magic," the white-furred male replied, "you're welcome."

Finally, Frisk took a closer look at the young male, covered in white fur, he was ever so slightly taller than the human teen, on his head he had a pair of white horns, his eyes were light blue and, surprisingly, looked like an average human's eyes. He was wearing a black leather jacket over a dark green shirt with a peculiar image on it with tattered dark gray jeans. Around his neck, he was wearing a black, spiked choker, with spiked wristbands on his wrists to match.

"I have no idea how to ask this without sounding rude," the human teenager inquired, "but...what in God's name are you?"

"I am, in fact, a monster," the young creature affirmed, "you fell into the underground, home of the monsters."

Dumbfounded, Frisk reached his hand out and repeatedly poked the fuzzy male's nose, at a loss for words. The furry monster looked unamused as he waited for the human teenager to stop.

"You done?" he asked flatly as the human pulled his hand away.

"You're a...goat...monster?" Frisk mused.

"Yes, yes, a goat monster," the monster sighed, "anyway, what's your name?"

"Frisk." the human teenager stated.

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, really?" the monster voiced, "Okay, well, I'm Asriel Dreemurr, caretaker of the ruins."

"Asriel...Dreemurr," an impressed Frisk responded, "holy shit, your parents must _love_ you!"

Asriel then got a strange look on his face.

"Ah, ha ha," he laughed awkwardly, "yeah."

"So, how exactly-" Frisk started to ask, before his attention got diverted, "what the _hell_ is that!?"

He pointed to the strange creature that had apparently led Asriel to him, short, round, one-eyed creature with sharp teeth.

"That is a Loox," Asriel explained, then got in close and whispered, "try to watch what you say, they're _very_ self-conscious."

Frisk nodded in return.

"All right then," the goat boy said, "follow me, I'll show you around."

The human teenager shrugged and followed the monster teen as he led him to the doorway of a brick building that was clearly very old, obvious, since it was referred to as "ruins". As they walked through the first hallway, they came across some other strange looking monster, all small, some had wings and antennas, some looked like living jello, some looked like giant frogs. Whenever one of the other monsters looked at them, Asriel would cast them threatening looks and demanding gestures, obviously telling them all to not say a word about the human newcomer.

"What _were_ these ruins?" Frisk wondered.

"Home once," Asriel said, "like, literally, the name of this place was 'Home'."

Frisk looked around oddly.

"My dad was great and all," the goat teen attested, "but, he _sucked_ at naming stuff, hell, my name is just a portmanteau of his name and my m...mom's name."

"A _badass_ portmanteau." Frisk retorted.

Asriel rolled his eyes in responded.

"So, you live here with your parents?" the human boy inquired.

"No..." Asriel said solemnly, "I don't live with them."

"Oh," Frisk replied, "well, where do they-"

"Just..." the goat boy groaned, clearly trying to retain himself, "not here, okay...they're not _here_."

Sensing that it was an unsavory topic for the monster teen, Frisk decided not to ask any further on the subject.

"Sorry," Asriel sighed, "I know you're just curious, I don't blame you."

He looked up at the ceiling.

"You know," the goat teenager said, "you're the first human to come here in a very long time."

"So, I'm not the first?" Frisk responded.

"Oh ho...no...no..." Asriel affirmed gravely, "you're _not_ the first."

They soon came across what appeared to be a small house.

"Here we are," the goat boy informed, "this is my place."

They walked through the doorway and to Frisk surprised, the inside looked very much like somebody's house, with hardwood floors and simple walls, Frisk followed Asriel as he led him to another room that looked like a living room with gray shag carpeting. The room had wooden consoles against both walls, a large bookshelf, and a dining table in the corner. There was a green lounge chair near a the fireplace and also a brown, beaten down couch in the middle of the room, with a wooden coffee table in front of it and side tables at both sides.

However, they both noticed that someone was actually laying on the couch, it looked like a short skeleton wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and black pants.

"Sans," Asriel voiced, trying to get the sleeping skeleton's attentions, "Sans, come on, wake up!"

The skeleton, apparently names "Sans", opened one eye and looked at Asriel.

"Oh, hey, kiddo," he voiced, "ya look into that thing we heard about."

Asriel responded by pointing at Frisk, who waved awkwardly at the skeleton.

"Holy shit," Sans uttered, both of his eyes going wide open, "it's true."

"Uh huh," Asriel said, "this is Frisk."

Sans sat up and got off the couch, then looked Frisk up and down.

"Well, now," he inquired, "how old are you, kid?"

"I'm sixteen." Frisk answered.

"Oh, hey, look at that," the skeleton replied, "you two are the same age, what a surprise."

"Anyway," Asriel said, "Frisk, this is Sans, he's a friend, he...stays over sometime"

Frisk looked on strangely as he let the fact that he was looking at a living skeleton sink in.

"Yeah," Sans said, "gotta make sure the kid eats...and sleeps...and bathes...and-"

"He gets it." Asriel sighed.

He then got an idea.

"Oh yeah," he offered Frisk, "are you hungry?"

Frisk thought about it and realized that he could not actually remember the last time he ate, most of the food he got was whatever he could find in the trash, in order to actually eat something decent, one had to do King Chara's bidding, which Frisk was not about to do.

"Honestly, yeah," the human teenager admitted, "I am starving like a bitch."

"Hey, so am I," Asriel replied, "why don't we bitches see if there's something for us in the fridge."

The goat boy led the human to his kitchen, where he promptly opened his fridge to see what was inside.

"It _is_ safe for me to eat monster food, right?" Frisk wondered.

"Is it safe for-" a baffled Asriel responded, "of course it's safe for humans to eat monster food, why would I offer you any if it wasn't?"

Frisk shrugged.

"Well, we have only _just_ met." he simply said.

"Fair enough." Asriel stated.

The goat teenager then pulled away from the fridge, holding a few wrapped thing in his hand, it appeared to be instant noodles, the sight of which caused Frisk's mouth to start watering.

"You like noodles?" Asriel asked playfully.

Frisk nodded eagerly.

"These won't take long to make," the goat boy said, "you can wait in the living room if you want."

* * *

After a couple minutes of waiting, Frisk, Asriel, and Sans were sitting at the dining table, eating their instant noodles, which Frisk finished in only a few bites. He barely wasted any time chewing he was so hungry.

"Wow," Asriel voiced, "you really were starving."

Frisk nodded as practically liked his bowl clean.

"Actually," the goat boy noted, "now that I've seen you in the light, you look like you don't eat much at all."

The human boy put his bowl down, having gotten all that he was going to get out of it.

"I would if I could," he sighed, "but, where I come from, food is a luxury that only certain people are lucky enough to get."

"Things not good up on the surface?" Sans inquired.

"Not good is putting it lightly," Frisk groaned, "I can only describe our leader as a...well...hellbeast, among other things."

"I don't know, Frisk," Asriel replied, "I think that's more actually _our_ leader."

A shocked Sans looked at Asriel.

"Geez, kiddo," the skeleton voiced awkwardly, "that's kinda...you don't...really..."

Asriel looked at Sans with a dubious look.

"Seriously," Frisk explained, "that's why I climbed up and threw myself off the mountain, I defied our asshole king and he sent some of his loyal bitches after me, I decided that I would rather die than go back to the kingdom and...well, here we are."

"So," Asriel replied, "I take it that means you _don't_ want to get back to the surface?"

"I'm not _itching_ to go back." the human boy said.

It was then Frisk yawned deeply, after being settled down for so long, it seemed that fatigue was finally catching up with him.

"Tired, kid?" Sans asked.

"Yep." was Frisk's response.

Unable to fight it any long, the human teenager let his head flop onto the table as he passed out.

* * *

In his slumber, Frisk saw mostly darkness, like he usually did, but, every once in a while, his mind would drift to distant memories, as in, the surface world before Chara's takeover. Things were not always perfect, but, it was decent, his life was comfortable and peaceful, his parents did the best they could, just like any good parents, they made sure he had what he needed most. But, thanks to Chara, those days were over and now he had nobody and virtually nothing to call his own.

Despite the unpleasant thoughts, Frisk slept like a log, as he rolled around, he realized that he was lying somewhere soft, comfortable, and warm, he felt like he could lie there forever, it had been that long since he had such a peaceful rest. Normally, he had to resort to sleeping on the ground, anywhere that could provide overnight shelter, and, of course, he usually had to find it himself. This was the first time in a long time somebody had actually provided him with food and shelter, as ever since Chara had risen to power, humanity had regressed to an "every man for himself" mentality.

Eventually, after sleeping for so long, Frisk opened his eyes to see where he was and found that he was actually lying snugly in a big, cushy bed, in a room that looked like somebody's, he guessed Asriel's, bedroom. It was dark right now, but, he was able to make out a black, wooden dresser, a bureau, a desk, and a side table with a lamp on it.

The human teenager sat up in bed feeling moderately refreshed, save for feeling rather hungry again, and decided to see what Asriel was doing. As he got out of bed he noticed some folded up clothes lying on top of the dressed, along with a small, folded piece of paper that had his name on it. He picked up the paper to look at it and found that it was a note that read:

"Hey, I thought you'd probably like to change out of those grungy clothes and, since it's universally frowned upon to undress people in their sleep, I figured you could do that yourself when you woke up. These might be a little big for you, but, it's better than nothing.

-Asriel"

Frisk looked down at his clothes, he had definitely been wanting to change them for a while, but, he had not gotten the chance, until now. Without a second thought, Frisk stripped himself of his disgusting clothes and put on the ones Asriel laid out for him, a purple shirt with the same image he saw on Asriel's shirt before and pair of black jeans. Just as the note said, the clothing was a bit big on him, though it was no surprise, given how scrawny he was and the fact that the clothes were fitted for the goat teenager's toned physique.

After changing into his borrowed clothes, Frisk left the room and walked down the hallway to the living room, where he saw Sans sleeping in the green lounge chair and Asriel sleeping on the couch. Looking up at the clock on the wall, he saw that it was only 6:30 a.m., it was hard to tell without any windows letting in sunlight.

While all was quiet, Frisk decided to look around a little more, as he had not gotten much of a chance to do so before he had fallen asleep. Frisk walked over to the bookshelf in the corner, which held many books, all of which looked quite old. Seeing a book labelled "Monster History", a curious Frisk grabbed it and took it over to the dining table, where he started reading it. The book explained in great detail the past of the monsters, back when they still lived on the surface, the increasing friction between the humans and monsters that would lead to their war, and lastly about the monsters' eventual defeat and imprisonment in the underground.

Soon, Asriel awoke and sat up on his couch, acknowledging the human teenager reading at his table.

"Ah, hey," the goat boy voiced, "you finally woke up."

As he spoke, Sans woke from his sleep as well, looking around to see what was going on.

"Finally?" a puzzled Frisk responded, "I woke up at 6:30."

"Yeah," Asriel revealed, "after sleeping for three days."

The claim came as a surprise to him, he knew he had probably slept for a while, but, he did not think it had been _that_ long.

"Seriously," an astounded Frisk uttered, "I slept for three days?"

"Yeah," Sans said, "like a damn champ, Asriel even stayed up the entire first night and most of the second to make sure you weren't dying. I had to literally drag him out to make him go to sleep."

"Well, I...I couldn't help it," Asriel interjected, "I didn't know if it was normal for a human to sleep that long."

The news stunned Frisk, the last people to ever be so watchful of him were his parents all those years ago.

"It's no big deal," the human boy voiced, "I was just exhausted, I'm sorry I took your bed for so long."

"It's okay," the goat teen said, "as long as you slept comfortably, my couch is plenty good for sleeping on anyway."

The human boy nodded as he stretched his arms.

"Yeah, that bed of yours is heavenly," he said, "I haven't slept in a real bed in years."

"Oh?" Asriel replied, "where do you normally sleep?"

"The ground, usually in alleys, under overpasses, parking garages, abandoned buildings," Frisk explained, "anywhere that can provide adequate shelter for the night."

His claim brought him stunned looks from Asriel and Sans.

"So, I take it your homeless." Sans responded.

"Why else would he sleep outside every night?" Asriel retorted.

Sans shrugged in response.

"Yeah, I lost...everything when our king took over," Frisk expressed, "my parents, my house, my friends, everything is gone, nothing is like it used to be."

"God, is the surface really in such bad shape?" the goat teenager inquired, "How long has it been like that?"

"Eight, almost nine, years now." the human boy sighed.

"Oh man," Sans replied, "that's about how long we've been dealing with our craziness as well."

Just then, there was a strange noise, Sans reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone, which was going off.

"And that would be Papyrus." the short skeleton stated.

He then answered his phone.

"Papyrus is his brother." Asriel informed Frisk.

"Oh, bro, really," Sans spoke into his phone, "again?"

There was a pause.

"All right," the skeleton sighed, "I'll help you track it down."

He then hung up his phone.

"Sorry guys, I gotta go," Sans said, "Papyrus needs me, apparently that dog ran off with one of his attacks."

"Again?" Asriel responded.

Sans nodded and got up from the chair.

"Well, you know where to find me," he said, "call me if you need anything."

He then vanished before their eyes, much to the shock of Frisk.

"Sans has some crazy, incredible powers," Asriel said, "that's how he gets around."

Frisk nodded in response.

"Let's get something to eat," the goat teenager offered, "I'm hungry and I'm sure you're starving again after being out cold for three days."

* * *

After the two teenagers had their fill from the kitchen, Frisk was hanging around Asriel's living room, while the goat boy was apparently running some errands. The human teenager went down the hall to Asriel's room, deciding to get a better look at it with the lights on.

He was surprised by how clean the room was, Frisk could not recall ever seeing a teenager's room so clean, despite his looks, Asriel certainly was no slob. Frisk also found that his clothes from before were gone, he guessed that Asriel must have put them up somewhere.

Frisk then glance at Asriel's desk and notice a very dusty picture frame, curious, the human boy picked up the picture frame and wiped off as much dust as he could. The picture inside seemed to be a very old, worn-out family photo; in the picture, the first thing Frisk notice was a small, goat-looking child, presumably Asriel as a child, standing in front of two grown figures. One was clearly an adult goat man, but, there were so many scratches of the other adult in the picture, he could not make out their appearance, other than they appeared to also be covered in white fur. Surprisingly, the bottom right corner of the picture was completely torn out and based on young Asriel's position in the photo, he was clearly looking at something or someone. Frisk could not help but wonder about the story behind it.

"Frisk?" he heard Asriel call from the other room.

Setting the picture frame down, Frisk quickly left the room and went out to the living room, where Asriel was standing, holding a bag.

"Oh, there you are," the goat teenager voiced as he noticed him, "I thought you might want these back."

He handed the bag to the human boy, who looked inside it and found the clothes that he had first arrived in.

"We cleaned them up as best we could for you," Asriel said, "in case you wanted to put them back on."

"Maybe later." Frisk said.

He set the bag down.

"Is that all you were doing?" the human teenager asked.

"Nah, I was mostly just checking on some other stuff," Asriel answered, "as caretaker of the ruins, that's my job."

Frisk thought about it.

"So it's mostly just you here?" he mused.

"Well, not _just_ me," Asriel replied, "you saw those other monsters, the Loox, Moldsmal, Froggit, Whimsun, all those guys."

"Yeah, out there," Frisk expressed, "but, I mean, it's clear that you're the only one actually living _here,_ so, I'm kinda curious as to what the story is there."

The goat teenager looked down and shrugged.

"Not...not really much of a story," he said, "I came here a long time ago, I decided that I liked it here, and I decided to stay."

Frisk could tell that there was more too it, but, before he could question further, Asriel asked a question.

"What's your story?" he wondered, "I mean, I know you told us that you're homeless and that things aren't good on the surface, but, is that really all?"

"Okay, okay," the human boy sighed, "if you really want to know, when our king rose to power, my parents refused to submit to him, because, who'd wanna be ruled by a fucking kid, right?"

Asriel listened closely.

"When my parents continued to resist," Frisk continued, "they were killed and I ran away, because I decided that I would rather starve and die on my own time than listen that asshole."

"Shit, I hate to interrupt you," Asriel interjected, "but, I have to ask about something, you said that your king, the person who took over, was a kid?"

"Yeah," the human teenager affirmed, "almost nine years ago, some psychotic kid came out of nowhere with this crazy power and, just, bent all of humanity to his will."

The goat boy seemed to be thinking about something.

"Frisk," Asriel queried warily, "what's your king's name?"

"His name is Chara," Frisk revealed, "King Chara."

Asriel's eyes widened.

"K-King...Chara?" he responded intently, "Crazy powers? Does this king happen to talk about 'soul power'?"

Frisk was surprised, he did not expect to "soul power" to actually be brought up.

"Yeah, that's how Chara gets his power," he said, "anyone who disobeys him gets killed and gets their soul absorbed by him."

Asriel was at a loss for words as he started breathing heavily, he anxiously walked over to the dining table.

"It can't be...he really..." the goat teen muttered softly, "that...that fucking..."

"Asriel?" Frisk spoke carefully.

"SON OF A _BITCH!_ " Asriel growled aloud, emitting a beastly roar, as he slammed his fist down on the table, sending a wave of fire magic across it, turning it to ash.

Frisk recoiled in shock, as the goat boy shook with anger.

"A-Asriel, what's going on?" he questioned, "How do you know about soul power?"

Asriel inhaled deeply and exhaled to recompose himself.

"I know about," he informed the human, "because _this_ is where Chara learned about!"

Frisk was taken aback by the information.

"Wait, Chara was here before?" he responded.

"Almost nine years ago," Asriel told him, "Chara fell down here, he lived down here for a while, until we started talking about how to break the barrier holding us down here. When Chara heard about it, he offered to let his soul be absorbed, which they found a way to do without killing him, but...as soon as his soul was put to use...he betrayed us!"

Frisk looked on in shock.

"He got our...our king killed!" Asriel continued emotionally, "After that, the queen lost her fucking mind and decided that the humans should be punished! She never leaves the castle anymore, she hardly talks to anyone, people need her, yet she spends all her time wallowing in her sorrows and hoping for a taste of human blood!"

He rubbed his face vigorously, probably trying to keep himself together.

"How did Chara kill your king?" Frisk asked softly.

"He let our...our king, Asgore, absorb him alive, with his soul, the king was able to go up to the surface," Asriel explained, "Asgore's intention was to absorb six other human souls, _without_ killing the humans themselves, to break the barrier and let us go back to the surface. But, Chara took control of his body and killed a human, when the other humans saw, they attacked D...Asgore, he managed to make it back with one human soul...before turning to dust right in front of us. When no one was paying attention, Chara ran off with the king's soul, back to the surface."

Frisk let all the information sink in, before responding.

"Good fucking God," he voiced, "so that's how he got that power, that's so horrible, Chara fucked over both our races."

"Yeah," the goat teenager huffed, "and now the queen is still trying to pick up where Asgore left off, trying to break the barrier."

"Any progress?" Frisk replied.

Asriel said nothing, he was clearly lost in thought; Frisk look past the goat teenager, at the stairway leading down to another area in the hallway.

"Where does that staircase lead?" Frisk asked.

"The exit to the ruins." Asriel stated.

After hearing that Frisk started walking towards the staircase.

"What are you doing?" the goat boy questioned.

"That leads to the rest of the underground, right?" the human teenager replied, "Now that I know the truth, I need to talk to your queen."

As soon as he said that, Asriel snatched him by the arm.

"Frisk, no," he said tensely, "you _can't!_ "

"I have to try," Frisk argued, "the surface is barely inhabitable for mankind, monsters won't be any better off if they get up there." He pulled his arm away and continued walking towards the stairs, but, just as he reached the top step, Asriel spoke again.

"Wait, I...I have to go do something!" he uttered.

The monster teenager ran passed him, disappearing down the stairs; leery of Asriel's intentions, Frisk quickly went down the stairs and ran through the long corridor until he caught up with Asriel at the end. The goat teen was standing in front of a large door, which, Frisk could only guess was the exit.

"Asriel..." Frisk spoke warily.

"This door leads to the rest of the underground, I'm the only one who can open it from both sides," Asriel voiced soberly, "I'm going to **_destroy_** it"

His claim made Frisk flinch.

"Nobody will ever be able to leave again!" the goat boy asserted, his hands coursing with power.

"Wait, Asriel," an alarmed Frisk responded, "you can't-"

The goat teenager spun around, his eyes having lost their color.

"Don't try and stop me," he expressed, "you naive bastard, if you go out there, she'll kill you, _**Toriel**_ will kill you and take your soul, don't you get it, I'm trying to protect you, I'm trying to keep you alive!"

The goat boy started flinging fireballs in Frisk direction, which the human teenager struggled to dodge.

"If you wanna leave here so badly," Asriel went on, "you'll have to go through me, so, either fight me or go back!"

He sent more fireballs at the human boy, who managed to dodge most of them, only getting hit with a couple of them.

"No, Asriel," Frisk said anxiously, "not like this."

"Fight or go back, you can't go out there," the goat boy yelled, "why can't you understand?"

He flung another volley of fireballs at Frisk, who either dodged them or took them head on, the only thing he was not going to do was fight.

"I won't fight you, Asriel," he said calmly, "but, I'm not turning back."

"Stupid, stupid!" Asriel huffed frantically, "Are you really that eager to die!?"

Frisk flinched as a fireball grazed his face.

"Asriel, please," he voiced coolly, "I need to do this, imminent death or not, I have to try!"

Asriel sent out more fireballs, however, Frisk noticed that they were more scattered and that they moved away when he moved towards them, noticing the display, it dawned on Frisk that the goat teenager had no intentions of actually harming him. The understanding relieved Frisk, but, at the same time broke his heart.

"Please, Frisk," Asriel said dismally, "just...go back upstairs."

Frisk did not say anything, he simply took a step forward, no more fireballs were conjured, but, Asriel still remained firmly against the door.

"I promise you'll be safe here." the goat teenager offered desperately.

Frisk walked forward some more.

"Why are you making this so difficult?" Asriel groaned.

The human teenager inched closer.

"I know you're just trying to do the right things, but..." the goat boy trailed off sadly.

Frisk was now standing right in front of him with the most patient of smiles on his face.

"I...I just don't want you to die!" Asriel cried, "I don't want _anyone else_ to die!"

"I don't want anyone else to die either," Frisk replied, "that's why I want to talk to your queen, if she heard for herself what's happening on the surface, then maybe I can dissuade her from trying to get to the surface."

"But, if Chara really wanted our souls that badly," Asriel voiced, "he could just come back down here, he has the power to cross the barrier going in and going out."

"Which is why we should suggest that instead of breaking the barrier, she should reinforce it." Frisk said.

The goat boy looked at Frisk curiously.

" _We_ suggest?" he responded quizzically.

"That's right," Frisk offered, "I want you to come with me."

Asriel glanced at the door tensely.

"You mean," he replied meekly, "I should leave the ruins?"

"Yeah," the human boy prompted, "let's go together, Asriel."

The goat boy turned to the side and leaned against the door.

"But...I...I've lived here for nine years and haven't set foot outside since I got here all those years ago," he expressed solemnly, "and I haven't seen...Queen Toriel in a long time either, I'd really rather not."

"Look, I know bad things happened down here," Frisk proclaimed, "Chara messed things up, and it clearly had a profound, negative effect on you, but, you made it clear that you just want to help everyone, you want to protect everyone, if that's the case, which it most clearly is, then why _not_ take this chance?"

Asriel looked at him uncertainly.

"Let's go, Asriel," Frisk urged encouragingly, "let's get out of here and go see the queen together, I'll be right beside you every step of the way."

The goat teenager sighed deeply and nodded.

"Okay, Frisk, you win," the goat teenager relented, "we'll go see Toriel, I guess I've avoided this long enough and, honestly, it'll probably be better this way, if I go, then, I can personally make sure that she doesn't kill you."

Finally Asriel pressed his hands against the door, as he did, Frisk heard what sounded like a lock turning, it was then the door began to slowly open, revealing a snowy wood beyond the doorway.

"I'll tell you right now," Asriel said, "it's quite a long ways to the castle, so, stay close."

Frisk nodded as he stepped through the doorway, onto the snow-covered pathway leading away from the ruins, the cool air hitting him instantly. After a moment of hesitation, Asriel stepped outside the door as well, letting his bare feet sink into the snow, thanks to his white fur, it did not bother him at all. He walked up to Frisk, who was standing, staring into the underground.

"So...you ready?" the goat teenager asked.

The human teenager nodded.

"All right, then," Asriel sighed feebly, "let's go...to Queen Toriel."

* * *

Holy shit, this is officially the longest fanfic chapter I have ever written, honestly, there were so many points I could have and probably should have stopped this, but, I just figured that I would get all the Ruins stuff done in one chapter, just get it over with so I could get on to the rest of the story.

I will be honest, I am just super excited to finally be doing a fic with a teenage Frisk and Asriel, I know this shares some similarities with Tyrantale, which will get finished, but, it will be different, it is just that, as soon as I got this idea, I just could not resist doing it.


	2. Chapter 2

Ruintale

Chapter 2.

Moving on, time to meet more monsters.

* * *

Frisk and Asriel walked through the snow covered woods, until they ended up in an open area, where some strange looking monsters were hanging out on the bank of a river. Two sort of bird-like, serpents, and a small humanoid creature made out of ice, with an impressively pointy hat, seemed to be having a conversation among themselves, when they noticed the human and monster teenager. They were visibly dumbfounded by their presence, as they stared at them in shock as they passed, before conversing amongst themselves once more.

Just then, Frisk shivered, the cold air finally starting to get to him.

"Getting cold?" Asriel asked.

"Kinda." Frisk admitted, clutching his borrowed shirt in an attempt to warm his cold fingers.

When he said that, Asriel promptly took off his leather jacket and put it around Frisk.

"Here," the goat boy said, "I don't really need it, my fur keeps me plenty warm."

"Then why wear it?" Frisk wondered.

"'Cause I like it," Asriel replied, "plus, it was a gift."

The two youths kept walking through the forest, passing more surprised monsters along the way, until they came upon a town with a sign in front of it. The sign reading "Welcome to Snowdin".

"Snowdin?" Frisk noted, "Really?"

"Like I said," Asriel said, "the king sucked at naming things."

"Um, I don't remember you saying that about the king," Frisk replied, "you said that your dad sucked at naming things."

Asriel looked around awkwardly.

"Uh, well, y-yeah," he stuttered, "him too, him too, lots of monsters have that problem."

As they walked into the town, they saw some of the monster residence standing outside, hanging out, chatting, when they noticed the teenagers making their way through. All of them looked stunned, some of them frantically calling others attention to the two boys, there were even monsters coming out of their houses.

"Wow," Frisk voiced, "people sure are getting worked up, I'm guessing it's cause they haven't seen a human in while."

"Just keep walking," Asriel urged, putting his hand on Frisk's back to hurry him along, "don't make eye contact with anyone."

The two walked briskly and had nearly reached the town's end, until someone finally addressed them.

"Your highness!?" they heard.

The teenagers stopped dead in their tracks.

"Fuck!" Asriel hissed.

They turned around and saw a crowd of monsters looking at them in awe, Sans and, who Frisk could assume was his brother, Papyrus were standing right along with them. A black and white dog monster spoke up.

"Is that...really you?" he inquired, astounded.

"Asriel," Frisk asked the goat teenager, "what's happening?"

"Frisk!" Asriel groaned tensely.

Frisk words seemed to draw a reaction from the crowd.

"Asriel?" a male bear monster uttered.

"So, it _is_ him!" a female bunny monster responded.

"He's alive!?" a white, female dog monster commented.

As the chatter continued, Sans quickly stepped in front of everyone.

"All right, guys," he announced, "that's enough, just back off already."

When none of the monster would move away, Sans' eyes went blank.

"BACK OFF!" he shouted furiously.

With that the other monsters started backing away, Sans then walked over to the two teenagers, Papyrus following along.

"Come on, kids," he said, "come with us."

The skeleton brothers then led the monster boy and human boy away, to a house just a little ways away.

"This is our place." Sans said as they walked inside.

Once inside, Papyrus locked the door behind them.

"Wowie, your highness," the tall skeleton voiced, "you actually left-"

"Don't _call me_ that!" Asriel cried hysterically.

The frustrated goat teenager flopped down on the green couch in the middle of the room.

"Okay, confused human boy would like some explanation, please," Frisk voiced, "I thought everyone was freaking out because of me, but, they seemed more hung up on Asriel. Also, why the 'your highness' thing?"

Asriel sighed deeply.

"Well," Papyrus revealed, "Asriel...formally, Prince Asriel...is the son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel."

A dumbstruck Frisk, looked at a chagrined Asriel, who nodded feebly.

"Wow," the human teenager responded, baffled, "wow, I...wow."

"I know I should've told you," Asriel sighed, "but, you were bound to find out once we left the ruins anyway."

The human teenager rubbed his head awkwardly.

"I'm just...surprised," he said, "when you talked about Queen Toriel, you spoke of her so hatefully-"

"I _do_ hate her!" the goat teenager asserted.

An awkward silence filled the room.

"Ahem," Sans voiced, "so...what brings you two out here?"

"Frisk wants to talk to _her_." Asriel stated.

" _Her_ as in...the queen?" Papyrus responded curiously.

"I thought that maybe if I told her about the state of the surface," Frisk explained, "then maybe she'll change her mind about breaking the barrier."

The skeletons looked on strangely.

"Geez, is the surface that bad?" Sans responded.

"Chara, _the_ Chara, is king of the humans," Asriel huffed, "and guess how he managed that."

"He turned the surface into a merciless hellhole, he kills anyone who defies him and absorbs their souls," Frisk added, "it's been constant suffering for almost nine years, if you guys go up there, you'll be in the same situation as us!"

"Slow down, kid," Sans replied, "just...give us a minute to process this."

He closed his eyes while a stunned Papyrus rubbed his skull uneasily.

"So," Sans inquired, "you're saying that Chara, the same kid that fell down here, was adopted by the king and queen, got the king killed, and then ran off with said king's soul all those years ago is now running the surface?"

"That's right," Frisk responded, "except...that 'adopted by the king and queen' part is also news to me."

"We would all like to forget that part," Asriel said, "we have been trying to forget Chara all together, but, it seems like we'll never be rid of him."

Frisk hung his head dismally.

"I'm sorry." he said solemnly.

"Don't be, Frisk," Sans told him, "it doesn't matter how much we try to ignore it, the damage Chara caused can never be undone."

"No shit." Asriel sighed quietly.

* * *

After resting for about an hour, Frisk, Asriel, and the skeleton brothers finally left Snowdin and ended up in a new, very wet, water bound area, heading for the castle.

"Okay, kid, listen," Sans voiced, "if you really are that determined to meet the queen, then you'll probably have a better chance at survival if you have a good number of monsters on your side."

"That's why we will be accompanying you from this point on." Papyrus avowed.

As they walked Asriel looked around.

"Hey, isn't this the way to Undyne's house?" he inquired.

"Yeah," Papyrus said, "before we left, I called her and explained the situation, so, now, we're going to pick her up so she can come with us."

"And you're sure she'll be up for it?" the goat teenager responded, "She's not all that fond of humans herself."

"I know," the tall skeleton replied, "and that's exactly why I called her ahead of time and had lengthy conversation with her about the situation."

They soon came upon a bizarre looking house that looked like a sea monster's head.

"And here we are." Papyrus said.

The tall skeleton approached the door and knocked on it, as he did, Asriel carefully moved Frisk behind himself, as if shielding him.

Eventually, the door opened and, in the doorway stood a very tall monster woman with characteristics of a fish.

"Hello, Undyne," Papyrus voiced, "we're all set to go visit Queen Toriel."

"You have the human with you?" Undyne questioned.

Asriel shifted slightly, so she could see the human teenager who smiled politely at her.

"Hi, Miss," Frisk said genially, "nice to meet you."

The fish woman crossed her arms and looked at him dubiously.

"You don't look like much of a threat," she voiced soberly, "but, kid, you gotta understand if I don't wholly trust you right off the bat."

"Understandable," Frisk replied, "I don't trust humans either."

"We lost a lot thanks to _one_ human." Undyne stated.

"And that same human took everything from me," Frisk attested, "from all of mankind."

They stared at each other silently for several seconds.

"Look, when it comes down to it," Asriel voiced, "we _all_ want the same thing, to be happy, to live our lives in peace, if that's the case, then we're all on the same side and we should all be able to work together, right?"

"You're not wrong, As," Undyne replied, "but, honestly, I'm surprised you of all people can still find it in yourself to get along with a human."

Asriel looked off to the side.

"What happened to Dad was _all_ Chara's fault," the goat boy expressed glumly, "I see no reason to condemn all of humanity when only one person is truly to blame."

"What about all of those villagers who-" Undyne started.

"Let me ask you something," Asriel interjected, "how would _we_ have reacted if we found a human down here standing over a pile of monster dust, while also covered that dust?"

Undyne could not find a response.

"That's what I thought." the goat boy scoffed.

"All right, we'll do what you want," Undyne said, "but, if we're heading for the castle, maybe I should call Alphys and tell her what's going on."

"Odds are," Papyrus voiced, "if she's been paying attention to the cameras, then she probably already knows."

"Oh, right," Asriel responded, "I forgot about the cameras."

Frisk looked at him curiously.

"Shortly after...the incident, Toriel made Alphys set up security cameras in every area in the underground to keep an eye on everything," Asriel explained, "honestly, I think it's a little extreme."

"What does she do to people who break the rules?" Frisk asked.

"She...has them sent to the lab." Papyrus answered.

"What happens at the lab?" the human boy wondered.

"Those sent there are required to be test subjects for whatever experiment our dad is working on," Sans affirmed, "our dad being being the royal scientist, Dr. W. D. Gaster."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the underground castle, Dr. Alphys was sitting in front of her video monitor, observing what was being caught on her cameras. She had been watching for quite some time and was confounded by what she was seeing, after watching for quite some time, she decided that it was time to speak up.

"D-Dad," she called, "Dad, come here, you should see this."

Hearing her call, superior and adoptive father, Dr. W. D. Gaster, entered the room to investigate.

"What's going on, Alphys?" the looming skeleton man asked.

"Sir," the lizard woman said tensely, "I-I've been watching the monitor, there...there's a human-"

"I know." the skeletal scientist uttered coolly.

Alphys was taken aback by his response.

"Sans told me," Gaster told her, "he also informed me that our prince has finally left the ruins for the first time since that horrible day."

"I saw it on the monitor," Alphys voiced, "they're...coming to talk to Queen Toriel."

The impressively tall skeleton nodded in response.

"W-Well, what should we do?" the lizard scientist inquired, "Should we tell the queen?"

Gaster stared at the video screen for several seconds.

"No." he finally answered.

His adopted daughter looked at him in shock.

"We say nothing about this, we let them come," Gaster expressed, "the queen has not left the castle in quite some time, she's practically a shell of what she once was, perhaps...hearing what they have to say, seeing her son again, will be the wake up call she needs."

"But, Dad," Alphys replied tensely, "if the human shows up here unannounced, there's no telling what Queen Toriel will do, she hasn't shown any mercy toward a human since..."

"I believe...we will just have to trust our prince, our friends, and your brothers," Gaster voiced coolly, "and just maybe...help them out, any way we can."

Alphys was uncertain, but, she knew better than to question him, without another word, she turned her attention back to the video monitor.

* * *

Another chapter down, sorry it is so short compared to the first chapter, I just thought this would be a decent place to end it.

I promise, every chapter will exceed at least 1000 words, any less than that would just be pure laziness.

More Ruintale to come eventually.


	3. Chapter 3

Ruintale

Chapter 3.

More of the unconventional AU.

I figured this would not be nearly as popular as Tyrantale, but, I still have yet to regret writing it.

Let's see where this takes us.

* * *

As Frisk and his new monster allies made their way further into Waterfall, Undyne suddenly stopped and look around.

"What's wrong, Undyne?" Papyrus asked.

"Shh," the fish woman hissed, raising her hand for silence, "Listen!"

Everyone remained completely still and silent as they listened for whatever Undyne was alerting them to, it was then they heard a scurring noise, followed by strange growling.

"Uh...what the hell was that?" Asriel prompted.

"Ah...ah crap...I forgot." Sans uttered.

He then turned to Asriel.

"So, you know how we were doing all those soul-based 'determination' experiments in the lab?" the skeleton voiced, "And how rule breakers were sent to lab to be test subjects?"

"Oh God," the goat teenager responded, "what did you guys do?"

"Well, we...ran some experiments on some monsters, using the extracted 'determination'," Sans explained, "but, nothing seemed to happen, so, we figured we hit a dead end and sent all the subjects home...however...some time later we got word that many of the test subjects started exhibiting...'strange' behavior."

There was a loud splash in the water nearby.

"And for reasons we have yet to determine the cause of," Sans continued, "some people who _haven't_ undergone any experimentation have also been displaying the same strange behavior."

They heard something growling nearby.

"Let's just keep moving," Papyrus said tensely, "quickly now."

The lot started moving faster, until they came upon a path surrounded by large bodies of water, which they walked halfway down before they heard more splashing. It was then they saw what looked like pale gray-yellow tentacles rising out of the water.

"Stop, stop!" Undyne hissed.

They all stopped as something rose out of the water, an octopus-looking creature with big, bloodshot eyes and cracked lips, it looked quite sore.

"Nobody move single muscle." the fish woman whispered.

"Wha, wazza?" the tentacled creature babbled incoherently, "I cuhah swa I hu suhaaaah, is ay wuh theh?"

Frisk and co. remained motionless and said nothing, afraid to even breathe.

"Nuh?" the octopus monster mumbled, "Geh I wah juh heen thins."

With that, it disappeared beneath the water, tentacles and all, while the human boy and his monster companions looked on speechlessly.

"Poor Onionsan." Papyrus groaned.

"Was _that_ a result of experimentation?" an appalled Asriel questioned.

"Uh, well..." Sans voiced, "Onionsan wasn't one of the monsters to get tested on, but, we...have a theory. We think that when some of the monster who were test subjects died, their dust kinda hung round, you know, like in the water or the air, and when other monsters came into contact with it, it might have...infected them. After all, the wrong kind of determination can have a...bizarre effect on monsters."

Asriel rubbed his face in disbelief.

"So, like," Frisk wondered, "determination makes monsters sick?"

"Depending on what the monster is determined to do." Undyne affirmed.

The lot hurried along through Waterfall, ducking the monster gawking at them, one, because they were surprised to see a human, and, two, because they were shocked to see Asriel himself. Along the way they passed other "infected" monsters, including some strange catlike things called "Temmies", a mermaid-horse creature called "Aaron", and a fish-like monster called "Shyren". All of them exhibited behavior similar to rabid wild animals, at least, that's what Frisk though, for he had seen his fair share of rabid strays on the street.

"They kinda looked like they had rabies," Frisk voiced, "wild and stray animals get it sometimes up on the surface."

"Oh yeah?" Asriel responded curiously.

"Yeah," the human boy continued, "I got in trouble with people numerous times, including my parents long ago, for giving food to strays, but, I couldn't help it, I felt bad for them. Especially in recent years, as now there seems to be more and more strays on the street, I can't tell if there's more of them or more homeless people."

The monsters looked on sympathetically, when suddenly, someone came tumbling out of the tall grass beside them, a tall, yellow, dinosaur-like monster, wearing a dark-gray hoodie.

"Oh," Undyne groaned, "dammit, Kid, you almost ran us over!"

"Sorry, Undyne;" the yellow monster replied, struggling to get back up, "a little help please?"

Without a second though, Frisk helped the strange creature to his feet.

"Ah, thanks," the monster said, "face-planting is almost impossible to avoid when you don't have arms."

His eyes widened when he looked at the group and he immediately got right up in Asriel's face.

"Your highness!" the armless monster uttered, "You're back!"

Then he looked at Frisk and gasped.

"And you found a human!?" he voiced, "Oh my God, when Queen Toriel finds out, she's gonna-"

"Nothing. Is Going. To happen. To Frisk!" the goat teenager interjected firmly.

There was a long awkward silence.

"Why don't we move along?" Papyrus offered.

* * *

The group kept moving, with the armless monster kid, who introduced himself simply as "Kid", deciding to tag along with them.

"So, you're going to see Queen Toriel because you wanna tell her that the surface is a bad place to live," Kid inquired, "and that she should leave the barrier up?

"Yep." Frisk stated.

"I don't know how well that's going to go over," Kid voiced, "freedom is the only thing everyone has been talking about for a long time."

"Well, with Chara's reign of torture," the human teenager replied, "you guys will have more freedom down here than you'll have on the surface."

As they walked along, Frisk suddenly noticed what looked like signs attached to the walls, prompting the curious human boy to get a closer look at them.

"Looks like he found the glyphs." Sans said.

The writing on the signs illuminated as Frisk approached them, the first thing he noticed was the words "humans" and "monsters".

"Are these about the human and monster war?" the human teen wondered.

"Uh, Frisk," Asriel voiced apprehensively, "I don't think you wanna read those."

His claim fell on deaf ears as the surface dweller skimmed the ancient glyphs, and while most of them contained information he already knew, a particular one really stood out to him:

" _ **Love, hope, and compassion,** this is what people say monster SOULS are made of, but, the absolute nature of the "SOUL" is unknown, after all, **humans have proven their SOULs don't need these things to exist**_."

"Oh...I see." Frisk mumbled.

"Frisk...th-those were written a _long_ time ago, all that information is _centuries_ old," Asriel pressed sensitively, "most of it is pretty dated and not all considered accurate today."

The human boy stared at the signs.

"Well," he sighed, "they're not _entirely_ wrong."

"To be fair, they said human souls 'don't need' those things to exist," Sans offered, "it doesn't say that the they're incapable of feeling those things."

"And, not all monsters are loving and compassionate," Monster Kid added, "some of them can be _real_ jerks."

Frisk stared at the glyphs some more, until they all heard crazed yelling in the distance behind them, which prompted them to move on.

* * *

At the same time, at the royal castle, Dr. Alphys and some of the other lab workers, were huddled around the doorway leading into the throne room.

"Wow, not only has the queen not left the castle grounds in six years," Alphys voiced quietly, "but, as of recently, she hasn't seen or said a word to anyone in over a week."

"Yeah, lately it seems she simply spends all of her days sulking around the throne room or sleeping in her room." a gray dinosaur-esque lab assistant said.

"She gave up asking about Asriel long ago," another lab assistant added, "and she hasn't asked about a human in ages."

They all stared in again.

"Someone should try and talk to her." Alphys stated.

As soon as she said that, all of the assistants looked at her.

"Really?" she sighed, "What am I supposed to say?"

"Just pick some random thing," the gray dinosaur offered, "like...uh...an update on the virus situation."

"Update?" the yellow, lizard scientist responded, "The only update I have is that it's still spreading."

After she said that, the assistants urged her through the doorway.

Alphys warily entered the throne room, where a tall figure, clad in purple, was standing by the west wall, staring out the window.

"Uh...h-hello," she spoke meekly, "Queen Toriel.

The distinguished goat woman gave no response, her gaze remaining fixated on the window in front of her.

"Sorry to...bother you, I...hope I'm not interrupting anything," the lizard scientist said awkwardly, "but, I just...I thought I'd give you a report on that 'Determination Virus'. It, um...it looks like more monsters are catching it, most of the victims being from Waterfall."

When the queen failed to respond yet again, Alphys mustered what courage she could and walked right up to the goat woman's side. Standing right next to her, Alphys caught a glimpse of Queen Toriel's face, finding no expression, no clear emotion whatsoever.

"Your...Your Majesty?" the lizard woman spoke again, a little louder, though, due to her tenseness, her voice could not help but crack, "I guess you didn't hear me, I said that-"

"I heard you." the queen uttered curtly.

Alphys flinched at the unexpected response.

"Alphys, how many times have I told you, told everyone," Queen Toriel spoke, in a voice so cold and lifeless, it was like listening to an intelligent machine, "unless it is good news, I do not wish to hear any 'reports', I do not need to be told that things are getting worse, I can see it _and_ hear it from here just fine. So, unless you have a follow up report that says you have found a way to fix the problem, _any_ or our problems, then there is no point in speaking to me."

"I know, I'm sorry," the lizard woman replied, "it's just that...we're worried about you, boss, you haven't spoken to or seen anyone in days."

The goat queen sighed deeply.

"Does it really matter?" she expressed dismally, "What good would it do, there is nothing that anyone can say or do that could make everything better for me. What the monsters want, I cannot deliver and what I want...I cannot possibly get. There is...nothing down here, Alphys, not for me, not for anyone, absolutely nothing."

"Ah, I wouldn't say that," Alphys said mildly, "I mean, we still got the six human souls-"

"Two." Toriel interjected.

Alphys was caught off-guard by the queens utterance.

"What?" she responded, puzzled.

"Two, Alphys," the goat woman informed her, "we have only _two_ human souls."

"What, but," the baffled lizard scientist replied, "Dad said that since _that day_ , six humans have been through here."

Toriel turned away.

"Six humans _have_ been through here," she affirmed, "and of those six I only managed to successfully harvest the soul of _one_ of them, the other soul we have is...the one that...A-Asgore..."

"O-Oh," Alphys responded, "but...how come-"

"That is why I have become so reclusive," the queen continued, "why I refuse to communicate with anyone outside the castle; I have heard what they are saying, they all believe that freedom is just within our reach, that we will be out of here soon."

Alphys looked on sensitively.

"What will I do when that seventh human comes here, Alphys?" Toriel conveyed dejectedly, "The people will be expecting results, what will they say or do when _nothing_ happens? How can I tell them that we are in fact _nowhere near_ freedom, that their queen is a complete and _utter_ failure!?"

"Uh...ah...Your Majesty..." Alphys sighed sympathetically, unsure of what to say.

"Alphys," the queen suddenly said, "I know...I know that there is a human here, underground."

The lizard scientist looked on, stunned.

"As I passed by the lab earlier," Toriel attested, "I heard the mentioning of a human making their way through the underground."

"Ah...and how much did you hear?" Alphys asked warily.

"I rushed back to the throne room as soon as I heard 'human'." the queen answered.

Alphys was uncertain of whether or not to be relieved that she had not heard about her son having resurfaced, though, she was sure that Dr. Gaster would be upset with her when he found out that the queen heard about the human.

"What do you want done?" she inquired.

Toriel turned to look at the young lizard woman with the most serious of expressions.

"Nothing, let the human come," the goat woman avowed, "let the chips fall where they may and when they get here, I will face them with dignity. Regardless of whatever happens, one thing I am certain of, when this confrontation is over, I will be Queen of the Monsters no longer."

Alphys recoiled in shock at the queen's words, the implications filling her with dread.

"Leave me," the monster queen ordered quietly, "there is nothing left to talk about."

Unable to find a reasonable response, Alphys turned and left the room, wracked with anxiety.

As soon as the lizard woman was gone, Queen Toriel pensively walked over to the other side of the room and looked up at the wall, from which hung a picture of her, her late husband, and her long estranged son.

"I am sorry, I know neither of you will forgive me and I will not ask you too," she voiced solemnly, "for I _am_ taking the cowards way out, but, I think we all know that it is for the best, for I have _nothing_ left to give."

* * *

Yay, third chapter done, I wanted to wait, but, I could no longer resist adding a scene from Queen Toriel's point of view.

I had to do something to space it out a bit, as I realize that it is progressing a little faster than it probably should be, but, odds are, if this goes over decently, just like Tyrantale, I do plan on making more fics centered in this AU.


	4. Chapter 4

Ruintale

Chapter 4.

Moving on into Hotland, the Core, and New Home

* * *

Dr. Gaster had returned to his lab and was now watching the monitor that displayed what was being picked up by the security cameras all over the underground.

Alphys, who was looking at the machine that measured the activity of the "core", which gave power to the entire underground, noticed something unsettling.

"Um...Dad," the lizard scientist voiced as she pulled a strip of paper, riddled with data, from the machine, "have you seen this, it looks like the core has lost more power since last week."

"I know," Gaster sighed, "and if it doesn't get better soon, it will shut down completely and the entire underground will be without power."

"Not to mention that the core is already-" Alphys responded.

"Yes," the skeleton man interjected, "I know, I've seen it."

They saw on the monitor that the skeleton brothers, along with Undyne, Prince Asriel, Monster Kid, and the human were already near Hotland's border.

"They're almost here..." Alphys voiced, "Oh God, I hope they don't run into...him."

* * *

As they cautiously made the rest of their way through Waterfall, Frisk looked around curiously at his monster allies.

"So, Undyne," Frisk voiced, "you're the head of the royal guard?"

"Yeah," the fish woman replied, "is there...a problem with that?"

"N-No," the human teenager said, "I just figured that if that's true then you must be _really_ strong."

"It's true, she really is," Papyrus attested, "Undyne is so strong she can suplex boulders bigger than herself!"

Undyne nodded proudly.

"Wow, really?" Frisk responded.

"Don't believe us?" Undyne said in return.

She then grabbed Papyrus around his midsection and hoisted him above her head, much to the tall skeleton's shock.

"It took me years to learn how to do stuff like this without letting my knees buckle." the fish woman affirmed.

"Yes, yes," Papyrus said frantically, "but, please don't drop the skeleton!"

Undyne promptly set him back down on his feet.

"I kind of really wanna see that boulder suplexing thing." Frisk stated.

"Tell you what, kid," the fish woman offered, "if the opportunity presents itself, I'll show you."

Frisk smiled, then looked at the skeleton brothers.

"So, your dad is the the royal scientist?" he quizzed

"Sure is," Sans affirmed, "of course, he spends most of his time in his lab, along with his assistants."

"And our sister, Alphys." Papyrus added.

The human boy looked at them curiously, while Asriel looked on dispassionately.

"Oh, you guys have a sister?" Frisk inquired.

"She's not actually their sister." Asriel said impassively.

"Uh, yes...actually," Sans replied coolly, "she is...in essence."

"In essence maybe," the goat teenager returned indifferently, "but, in reality, she's not."

There was a moment of awkward silence as a frustrated Sans facepalmed, in the meantime, Papyrus pulled Frisk aside.

"Okay, the truth is," the tall skeleton told him quietly, "Alphys is our _adopted_ sister."

"What does Asriel have against her?" Frisk asked, quietly as well.

"Oh, it's not _her_ he has a problem with personally," Papyrus explained, "it's just that...what happened all those years ago, the whole Chara, kind of warped his view of adoptive family members."

The human boy nodded understandingly in response.

"So, what's Alphys like?" he wondered.

"Ah, she's a super scientific _genius_!" Undyne voiced, "Of course, what more could you expect from someone raised by the most intelligent monster in the underground."

"Dr. Gaster...was it?" Frisk further asked, "And what's he like?"

Sans shrugged.

"About what you'd expect from a brilliant scientist," the short skeleton said, "he's intelligent, inventive, self-discouraging and encouraging, and a workaholic."

"And still manages to be a decent parent..." Papyrus added, "with that said, a little less time in the lab and more time with us would be nice-"

"Hey look at that," Asriel interjected, "we're coming up on Hotland."

Frisk looked up and noticed that they were on a new path, on the wall he saw an enormous sign that read, in big, digital letters: "Welcome to Hotland".

"So...I'm to assume that the weather there is..." the human boy said.

"Yeah, you won't need the jacket anymore," the monster prince offered, "but, go ahead and hold onto it."

The human teenager slid off the leather jacket, which already hung loosely from his shoulders as it was at least two sizes too big for him, and tied it around his waist.

However, as they entered the new area, everyone stopped dead in their tracks and looked around; the area was surprisingly dark and, to everyone's surprise, not as "hot" as it was expected to be. There was an ominous coolness in the air, not enough of one to require a jacket, but, definitely enough to indicate that something was wrong.

"Is that supposed to be lava?" Frisk asked, noting the dark gray-charcoal colored formations that lined areas out of reach, signs of the substance, glowing dimly like dying embers, was still visible beneath the stone crust.

"Yeah...it is..." Papyrus affirmed awkwardly.

"Seriously," Asriel uttered, looking at the skeleton brothers, "what the hell!?"

Sans immediately threw up his hands.

"I swear," he attested, "this is our first time seeing this ourselves."

"Yeah," his brother added, "nobody told us about this."

"I remember Alphys mentioning that the weather had been changing in Hotland," Undyne noted, "but, she never said anything about...this."

"So this is...recent?" Frisk mused.

The state of Hotland was quite similar to that of Waterfall, with many monsters appearing to suffer the same infection as numerous ones they had seen a while back. They moved slowly, as the infected seemed to react mostly to motion and sound, their beastly growls being the only warning the group got before encountering them. Of course, since they had to move carefully, it was a slow trip through the dark, smoldering land.

"Ugh...how did this happen?" Asriel groaned quietly, trying to avoid catching the attention of any infected monsters.

"It's as we said, we-" Papyrus started.

"I know _how_ it happened," the goat teenager responded, "I mean... _why_ did this have to happen?"

Frisk wondered as well as he stayed close to his allies, wedged firmly between Asriel and Papyrus.

Suddenly, Asriel's ears twitched.

"What was that?" he uttered, stopping dead in his tracks.

The others stopped as well.

"Listen." the monster prince instructed.

Everyone listened closely and soon, they heard it, strange beeping and whirring noises, like that of a machine.

"Oh shit," Undyne voiced, "is that who I think it is?"

"Yep." Sans stated.

"What is it?" Frisk wondered warily.

"You have to hide, now!" Asriel said urgently.

They hurried along, until Asriel shoved Frisk behind a pile of rubble, forcing him to remain on the ground, while the skeleton brothers, Monster Kid, and Undyne remained in plain sight.

"Why are we hiding?" Frisk inquired.

"Shhh..." was the goat boy's only response, as he moved to look out behind their hiding place.

Frisk went to see what Asriel was looking at and flinched at what he saw, a menacing, mechanical humanoid, with black and indigo armor covering its chrome limbs, One of its eyes looked like a humans eyes, while the others was simply a piercing, red light. As soon as he got a look, he shrank back behind the pile with Asriel.

"What is that!?" the human teenager questioned quietly.

"Mettaton," the goat prince informed him, "he was created by Dr. Alphys, apparently Toriel had her modify him to identify and hunt for humans, which is why you _can't_ let him see you."

The robot stopped in front of Undyne and the skeleton brothers.

"Undyne, Sans, Papyrus." the robot spoke, in a cold, monotonous voice.

"Mettaton." Undyne responded simply.

"Word from the castle is that a human was spotted in the underground." Mettaton stated.

"Is that right?" Sans replied.

"You haven't seen or heard anything yourselves?" the mechanical man questioned.

Monster Kid shook his head.

Sans shrugged.

"I haven't." Undyne said.

"Of all the gossip I've heard in Snowdin," Papyrus voiced, "I've heard nothing regarding that."

"No matter," Mettaton affirmed, "I will continue to scan every corner of the underground until I find what I am instructed to."

Asriel silently urged Frisk to move along, hoping they could slip ahead while the robot scanned the area, with their friends casually walking away from Mettaton as well, and it looked like they were going to get away. However, they were suddenly approached by a monster, with a wizard-like appearance, that appeared to have the "Determination" infection.

"AAWWAAH!" the infected monster wailed, "Rah, s'a huuuuman!"

With that, Mettaton's head snapped in their direction.

"Human identification confirmed," the robotic man said intently, "target locked."

"Run!" Undyne shouted.

The group ran in the direction of the Core, desperately moving to dodge mettaton's projectile attacks, as he ran, Monster Kid tripped and, afraid to get back up, he rolled for cover.

"Keep running," the armless monster teen yelled, "I'll catch up later!"

"The castle is just beyond the Core," Asriel attested, keeping a tight grasp on Frisk's wrsit, "we're almost there!"

Then, Mettaton's projectile's struck an already dilapidated building, causing it to give-way and collapse, panicking, Sans grabbed his brother, the closest one to him and teleported away, while Undyne dived for cover. Asriel and Frisk just barely managed to avoid getting crushed as they came up on the bridge to the core, however, just as they reached it, Mettaton fired more projectiles, hitting bridge, nearly sending the teenagers into the dimly glowing Core. They got to the other side and got into the Core, but, the damage from Mettaton's attack caused the area to begin to crumble, prompting the youngsters to go faster. Just as they were nearing the elevator, a sizable chunk of the ceiling began to cave in, seeing it, Asriel promptly shoved Frisk forward. The human teenager narrowly cleared the cave in, only to find himself alone in front of a wall of rubble.

"Frisk!" he heard from the other side, it was faint, but, recognizable thankfully Asriel had avoided getting buried as well.

"I'm okay!" Frisk called back.

"Good, just sit tight," the goat teenager responded, "I'll break through this!"

Frisk turned around and looked down the hallway, at the end of it was the elevator to the palace, where Queen Toriel was waiting. With that in mind, the human boy made a critical decision.

"Asriel," he called, "take your time, I'll...I'll go on ahead!"

Hearing that, Asriel went into full on panic mode.

"You'll...what!?" the monster prince uttered, "No, Frisk, you can't!"

He frantically began to dig at the rubble, desperately trying to clear the way.

"Frisk, please, you can't go alone!" Asriel cried, "She'll kill you! Listen to me, she will _kill_ you!"

However, his cries were in vain, as Frisk had already gotten on the elevator, which thankfully still worked, and rode it all the way to the top. When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Frisk stepped off and began to walk through the corridors, until he found a domain that looked very much like the one that Asriel resided in back in the ruins. He entered the house and carefully walked through, but, saw nobody inside, however, he did notice something striking and that was the walls of the house, which were all lined end-to-end with quite old-looking photos. Photos of the Dreemurr family, in happier times, as Frisk solemnly perused the collection of photos, one in particular caught his eye, it was almost identical to the one that Asriel had, however, it was all in one piece, with Toriel's face clear and unscribbled, however, while Chara was visible in the picture, his entire image was scribble over, just like Toriel's in Asriel version of it.

Frisk then turned his attention to the stairway leading to the lower level, a well-placed sign indicating that it led to the throne room. With nothing else to hold him back, the human teenager made his way down the stairs and walked down yet another hallway, until he reached a doorway leading to a big surprisingly bright room, the ground inside covered with golden flowers, in the center of the room, there was a throne, and at the other end of the room, looking up at a sizable portrait of the royal family, was a dignified, purple-clad figure.

Nervous, but, Determined, Frisk slowly walked into the room, and as he stepped onto the bed of flowers, the noise caught the attention of the room's distracted inhabitant.

"Oh, is someone there?" the monster spoke.

She then turned around to see who had entered her throne room, revealing her appearance to be that of a goat creature, just like Asriel, leaving no doubt in Frisk's mind that she was indeed the queen. As soon as she saw the human teenager, she gasped aloud and recoiled in shock, both creatures remaining motionless as they made eye-contact with each other.

The moment of truth and there was no running away for either of them.

* * *

Whoo, new chapter done and things are about to go down!

This chapter might seem sloppy and rushed, but, that's mainly because 1. I have finished this at 1:35 a.m., 2. I am getting excited and restless for the last chapter, and 3. I would really like to get this done soon so I can get back to Tyrantale and other fics.


	5. Chapter 5

Ruintale

Chapter 5.

It is time.

* * *

For over a minute, Frisk and Queen Toriel remained motionless, staring at one another in utter silence, waiting for the other to make the first move.

"O-Oh," the queen spoke meekly, "ah...you...you made it."

"Queen...Toriel?" Frisk responded curiously.

The goat woman nodded, clearly disturbed by his presence.

"Human...Child," she inquired stiffly, "what is your name?"

"Frisk." the human teenager answered.

Toriel looked at him closely.

"Really?" she voiced, "I only wondered, because...you look...so...much...like..."

When a mental image of the past flashed into her mind, the queen shook her head vigorously to forget it.

"I'm sorry I came in uninvited," Frisk said, "but, I went through a lot of trouble to get here..."

"I know," Toriel replied, "I have known for a while that you were coming."

"Yeah?" the human teenager replied, "Well, now that I'm here, your highness, I need to t-"

The queen then raised a hand to silence him.

"Yes, I know why you are here." she stated.

Frisk looked on curiously.

"Please," she requested, "follow me."

Toriel led the human boy out another doorway, down another hall, to a new area, where they stood before a translucent wall of pulsating light, beyond which was a doorway to the outside.

"Is this..." an awestruck Frisk mumbled.

"The barrier that keeps us all trapped underground," Toriel affirmed, "one human soul and one monster soul is all it takes to pass through, however, to bring it down, we need-"

"Seven human souls." the human teenager added.

The queen nodded solemnly.

"We have two right now," she proclaimed warily, "and...if I win, and _finally_ do this right again, it will be three."

"W-Win?" Frisk responded tensely.

With that, Queen Toriel turned to face him with a grave look on her face.

"Forgive me for this." she bewailed softly.

closing her eyes and hanging her head, the monster queen held out her hand and before Frisk's eyes a massive trident appeared in her grasp. Frisk drew back as he realized what was happening.

"Wait," Frisk tried to say, "I didn't come to-"

He was then cut off by a fireball hitting him in the shoulder, causing him to stumble backwards, before he could react, he found himself surrounded by fireballs at all sides, coming at him with greater speed and force than the ones he faced from Asriel. It was clear that, unlike her son, the queen meant business, as after a round of fireballs, she thrust the trident in her hands forward and, when the human boy dodged it, swung it violently back and forth. As hard as he tried to dodge her attacks, Frisk eventually did end up taking damage. The only reason he had not sustained more cuts or burns was because of Asriel's thick leather jacket.

"Please, Queen Toriel," Frisk said anxiously, "I didn't come to fight you!"

The queen did not respond, she only trembled as she powered up her next attack, yet another wave of white-hot fireballs. Once again, Frisk made every effort to avoid getting hit, only to get hit a few times.

"Listen to me," the human teenager yelled, "please, I need to tell you about the surface!"

"Whatever is up there," Toriel huffed, "I'll see for myself once this barrier goes down!"

She sent out more fireballs and Frisk covered his face with his arms as they made contact with him.

"But, that's just it," the human teenager groaned, "if you go to the surface, you and the other monsters will be-"

He was cut off again when the queen's trident slammed across his face, leaving a deep gash across his burnt, filthy face.

"There is...not point in resisting," Toriel lamented, clearly distressed, "fight me...or die, we cannot both survive here...I refuse such an scenario."

Frisk looked up at her with concern, it was clear that there was more at stake there than just his soul alone.

"I'm sorry, but, I refuse to fight, let alone kill you," the marred human boy responded, "I don't care if you kill me, your highness, but-"

Again, Toriel swung her trident and, as he stumbled back to avoid it, raked the human teenager across the chest, leaving three big scrapes. Sore and worn-out, Frisk fell to one knee, panting as blood from his open wounds slowly dropped onto the floor. Queen Toriel was also panting, she was, after all, giving it all she had.

"W-Why?" the goat woman questioned breathlessly, "Why are submitting? Why do you not fight?"

"I said that I wouldn't fight." Frisk huffed wearily.

Then, Queen Toriel wrapped both of her hands around his neck forced him to look at her, choking him in the process.

"It is a fruitless choice, you naive child," the distraught queen expressed anxiously, "the only way to get through the barrier is to have the soul of a human and a monster with you, if you do not kill me and take my soul, you cannot get back to the surface!"

"I...don't...want...your...soul!" Frisk wheezed as Toriel's grip tightened on his throat, "I don't...want...to...go...back!"

"You do not...want..." Queen Toriel responded, confused, "then why come here, to my castle!?"

"I...I'm...trying...to...protect...you...all...monsters," Frisk croaked, "the...surface...is...a...nightmare...I...ran away...to...escape...our...king...our...king...Cha..."

Finally, everything started going dark as he began to black out, as he did, he could feel the queen's grip loosening on his neck.

Suddenly, a fireball came flying from the opposite end of the room, crashing into Toriel, knocking her off her feet, free of her grasp, Frisk ravenously took in oxygen once again.

"Frisk!" he heard.

Looking back, he saw Asriel standing there, panting and covered in dirt, obviously from forcing his way through the mess that had separated them.

"Asriel!" Frisk called back feebly.

Queen Toriel, having forced herself into an awkward, half-sitting position, looked up in shock.

"Asriel?" she uttered meekly.

She watched as the teenage goat monster hurried over to the wounded human and promptly took him into his arms, the human teenager hugged him tightly, melting into the monster prince's embrace as his warm healing magic immediately took effect.

"You naive bastard," Asriel scolded in a relieved tone, "don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, but, no matter," Frisk replied affectionately, "I knew you'd catch up with me eventually."

After squeezing the human boy tightly once more, Asriel turned his attention to the dumbstruck monster queen, his mother, who looked at him with pure astoundment. The goat prince stood up, with Frisk following suit, staring coldly at Queen Toriel, who slowly got to her feet as he approached her.

"Asriel...my child?" the queen voiced shakily, "You...you came back."

"First off, don't 'my child' me, Queen," Asriel replied bluntly, "you inglorious heathen, second, the _only_ I'm here is because Frisk wanted to talk to you and I wanted to see to it that he survived the encounter. Your killing spree ends here."

The conscious-stricken goat woman looked on contritely, clearly on the verge of tears.

"Asriel..." she lamented, "yes, it is true, I am a...a heathen, I have done horrible, unforgivable things to innocent people, I did not want to do it, I just...the barrier-"

"Stop, just stop," Asriel interjected callously, "enough with the barrier excuse, this isn't about the barrier at all and we both know it!"

Frisk looked on tensely.

"Tell me, Toriel," the monster prince questioned, "of all the humans you've faced, how many souls have you actually collected?"

Queen Toriel hung her head in shame.

"One." she mumbled.

"Speak up." her son prompted.

"One soul," Toriel affirmed sadly, "I have taken...only one human soul of my own, two in total...is all we have."

Asriel nodded while staring at her in pure disgust.

"Uh huh, yeah," he berated, "you didn't give a damn about destroying the barrier, you just want to kill more humans, because, you still blame _all of_ humanity for Dad's demise, when only one person is truly to blame, God, words can't describe how much I absolutely _hate_ you, you pathetic bitch!"

Frisk flinched as Asriel struck his mother with another fireball, which she made no attempt to avoid.

"Do you think I am proud of the things I have done?" Toriel expressed miserably, "Of what I have become? I have destroyed homes, I have _murdered_ faultless humans, _children_ , and I have let my own kingdom fall into despair, this is _not_ what I want!"

"Well then...what _do_ you want?" Frisk wondered.

The queen wept softly.

"I want...to die," she whimpered, "I just want to die, I have failed as a mother and a queen, I have no right to hold onto this throne anymore, let alone live."

Queen Toriel sank to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, clutching her trident against her chest.

"So...that's why you wanted me to..." Frisk mumbled as Toriel's words sank in.

He looked at the tormented goat queen with immense sympathy, but, Asriel's countenance, as he stood before the ruined monarch, was as apathetic as one could get. Suddenly, the goat teenager's hands twitched and in them appeared two big, formidable swords, his expression degenerating into a hateful scowl.

Horrified by the scene, Frisk rushed in between the prince and the queen, just as Asriel he raised his swords to strike.

"NO, Asriel," the human teenager yelled, "not like this!"

"Stand down, Frisk," Asriel said firmly, "you knew this is how this would end."

"No, I didn't, I did not consider for a second that it would come to this!" the distressed human teenager countered, "This _can't_ be the answer, I won't accept it!"

The goat prince's gaze remained firmly on his mother, who had gone completely quiet.

"Come on, Frisk," he said acerbically, "you've seen what the underground looks like now and you've heard what she has done, besides, you heard what she said, she _wants_ to die."

"And _you_ said that you _didn't_ want anyone else to die!" Frisk asserted, "And you didn't specify, you didn't say that you didn't want any other _monsters_ to die, you didn't say that you didn't want any other _humans_ to die, you said that you didn't want _anyone else_ to die!"

"Yeah...but..." the monster prince mumbled.

The human teenager then reached up and placed his hands on both sides of Asriel's face, making the conflicted goat boy look at him.

"What would your _dad_ want, Asriel?" Frisk asked softly.

The monster teenager flinched at the word "dad" and, in that moment, it seemed as if time had come to a grinding halt. Asriel looked from the human boy to the family picture hanging on the wall, he stared at it for several silent seconds, focusing on the image of his father, feeling as if the old king was actually looking back at them. He then looked back to the curious Frisk and closed his eyes.

"Not this," Asriel said solemnly, the swords disappearing from his hands, "never this."

Relieved, Frisk turned his attention to Queen Toriel, who was still slumped on the ground, lost in her thoughts, he got down to her level and made eye contact with her once again.

"Now will you listen to what I have to say?" the human teenager requested.

The queen responded only with a nod.

* * *

Frisk explained the state of the surface in great detail to Queen Toriel, along with the history of Chara's rule and how he had found his way to the underground.

"So...that is what happened after..." the queen voiced dismally, "I never thought...dear God...you poor thing..."

"You get it now, right?" the human teenager prompted, "Why you _shouldn't_ break the barrier? Why it would be better for you all to stay down here?"

"I do, but..." Toriel replied, "it will be difficult to explain to rest of the monsters."

"Well, write it down if you have to and power through it," Asriel huffed, "consider it your final act as queen."

Frisk looked at curiously.

"You said that you don't want to be queen anymore and you clearly shouldn't be," the prince said to his mother, "so, since nobody wants to fight and nobody else is going to die, your only option is to formally step down as queen."

The queen thought about it for a moment, before nodding.

"If she's going to give up the throne," Frisk asked, "does that mean you're gonna be king, Asriel?"

"Well, obviously," Asriel retorted, "it is the rule, plus...I think I've been away from home long enough."

"As do we!" they heard from the doorway.

They looked to find the skeleton brother, Undyne, Monster Kid, Alphys, Gaster, and some of the lab worker looking through the doorway.

"Before you ask," Undyne attested, "yes, we saw _everything_!"

"Whatever happens next," Alphys said, "we're with you."

"So...what does happen now?" Frisk wondered.

"Here's what's going to happen," Asriel declared, directing his words at Toriel, "first, you're gonna inform our kind of the entire situation, second, you're going to renounce your status and let me step up as king, and finally, you're going to leave this castle and never come back...unless I decide otherwise."

The queen, not surprisingly, seemed okay with every demand.

"Understood." she stated.

* * *

It took a while, but, with the help of everyone in the castle, Queen Toriel eventually managed to get every sound monster to the castle grounds, where they listened as she revealed everything to them. First telling them about the lack of human souls and her actions behind it, then about Chara's fate and the state of the surface, then about Frisk and the idea that they would in fact make the underground completely impassable from the outside to protect monsterkind.

With the truth out and the situation fully explained, Toriel went on to announce that she would resign as queen and hand her position over to Asriel. As requested, Alphys quickly brought out King Asgore's crown, which had been locked away ever since the king's death, and held it out while in a half bowing position. The goat woman took the crown and peacefully placed it on her son's head, the act making the spectating monsters rejoice, the crowd cry out jovially, joyously chanting Asriel's name. Then, on Asriel's insistence, the now former queen removed her own crown and handed it to the new king.

"Now, Dad's trident." Asriel pressed with a beckoning gesture.

With no resistance, Toriel solemnly handed the massive trident over to her son.

"That's Asgore's trident?" Frisk responded quietly.

Undyne nodded affirmatively.

Asriel held the trident closely, getting the feel of it as it was rather heavy, then looked back at his mother.

"Now...get out." he said curtly.

With that, Toriel walked somberly out of the castle, the crowd of monster parting to clear the way for her, keeping her head down as she went, unable to look _any_ of them in the eye.

"Are you really not gonna let her come back here...ever?" Frisk wondered.

"Moving on is a process, Frisk," Asriel sighed, "and whether she's ever forgiven or not, I can say with the utmost certainty, nothing will _ever_ be the same for us."

The human teenager looked on dismally.

"I guess I understand," he voiced, "it's just...such a situation is unfathomable to me..."

"Monsters having family quarrels?" Asriel mused.

"No...the idea that someone could... _hate_...a family member," Frisk said, at a loss, "especially a parent."

The teenage king looked at him apologetically.

"I'm sorry you got mixed up in all of this," he voiced remorsefully, "guess I'm not much of a caretaker."

He was then hugged from the side by Frisk.

"Aw, are you kidding," the human boy replied fondly, "I would've been dead long before now if it wasn't for you, I am not a fighter, I think I made that abundantly clear."

"I know," the goat teenager said, "and I probably wouldn't have left the ruins if you hadn't convinced me otherwise."

He hugged Frisk in return.

"But," Asriel wondered, "what are you going to do now, Frisk?"

He then felt the human teenager bury his head in his sturdy chest.

"Duh," Frisk affirmed, "I wanna stay with _you_ , silly!"

The new king was oddly surprised by his claim.

"Really?" he responded placidly, "You really are odd, had you said that before we left, this would've never happened."

"Besides, even if I wanted to leave, going to the surface isn't an option," Frisk said, "not that I'd ever want to go back there in the first place."

Asriel placed his hand on the back of the human teenager's head.

"It's okay," he avowed softly, "I promise...you'll be safe here."

* * *

Yes, done, it is done!

Ah, I know that seems rather anticlimactic, but, it is only because, if I get to it, I plan on writing more fics to follow it, as there are loose ends that need to be tied up that cannot really be tied up here.

Anyway, now that this is done, hopefully I can continue Tyrantale, which is at its halfway point.

I would like to do art for this AU, but, it might be more of a challenge compared to Undertale and my Tyrantale, but, we will see in due time.

I do have other fics and possible AUs in mind for the future, but, I am not sure what comes next, I might just focus one what needs to be finished first.


End file.
